The idea that everything would happen exactly as it does regardless of whether we pray or not is a specter that haunts the minds of many who sincerely profess belief in God. It makes prayer psychologically impossible, replacing it with dead ritual at best
– David Brainerd –
Nothing more unbecomes a heavenly hope than an earthly heart.
– William Gurnall –
It is worthy of special notice, that when our Lord had warned his followers to take heed and beware of covetousness,(Luke 12:13-21) the example which he gives of this sin, is not of one that was a plunderer of other men’s property, an unfair dealer, or an oppressor of the poor; but of a certain rich man whose ground brought forth plentifully; and whose only object appeared to be, first to acquire a handsome fortune, and then to retire from business and live at his ease.
– Andrew Fuller –
from The Backslider: His Nature, Symptoms, and Recovery
A proud heart never praises God, for it hoards up praise for itself.
– Charles Spurgeon –
from the sermon “Praise Your God. O Zion” (February 25, 1866)
Call often to mind that proverb, “That the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing” (Ecclesiastes 1:8). Endeavor therefore to withdraw thy heart from the love of visible things, and to turn thyself to the invisible. For they that follow their sensuality, do stain their own consciences, and lose the favour of God.
– Thomas a Kempis –
from The Imitation of Christ
One great power of sin is that it blinds men so that they do not recognize its true character.
– Andrew Murray –
Watch the kind of people that God brings around you, and you will be humiliated to find that this is His way of reviewing to you the kind of person you have been to Him.
– Oswald Chambers –
If we have a purpose of our own, it destroys the simplicity and the leisureliness which ought to characterise the children of God.
– Oswald Chambers –
And we would sanctify almost anything by saying “Im doing it for Jesus” I warn you Brother that you cant do anything for Jesus that Jesus wouldn’t do. … The only thing I can do for God is [something] holy like God. and the only thing i can do for Jesus is that which Jesus has allowed and permitted and commanded me to do!
– A W Tozer –